"Eye In the Sky" Review

Helen Mirren leads a solid cast in Eye In the Sky, a timely, white-knuckle thriller about the ethics of drone warfare. Gavin Hood co-stars and directs from an original screenplay by Guy Hibbert.

The story follows several hours in a joint operation between British, American and Kenyan authorities. The mission is headed by Colonel Katherine Powell (Mirren) in England who receives intelligence that three of the top five "Most Wanted" fugitives on their list are meeting in the same house in a peaceful Kenyan village just outside Nairobi. Kenya is an ally to both England and the United States, which makes the idea of dropping a missile that much more dangerous. The trigger man and pilot are at an Air Force base in Nevada - Pvt. Carrie Gershon (Phoebe Fox) pilots the drone while Lt. Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) is in charge of firing its payload. On the ground, Kenyan intelligence do everything they can to spy on the terrorist operation. Agent Jama Farah (Barkhad Abdi) positions a remote-controlled camera inside the house while he tries to stay under the radar of the occupying military force. Back in England, General Frank Benson (the late Alan Rickman) sits in a situation room with Powell's superiors debating the legality and the potential fallout of the operation. Without their approval, the mission cannot proceed. Just as Powell thinks she's covered and Watts' finger is on the trigger, a small girl sits in the kill zone to sell bread. Intrigue and edge-of-your seat tension ensue.

This may be the best script of any film I've seen so far this year. The pacing is perfect, and each character is given their due as they stake their individual claim/blame in the operation. Everyone has a satisfying bit of agency to them, and the performances live up to this. Mirren is routinely excellent, and Paul captures the pathos of a man grappling his moral compass with his duty to the operation. Rickman is also quite good. It's great to see him in one last non-franchise production.

Perhaps the best part about Eye In the Sky is that the ending isn't tied in a bow. War isn't, so why should this be? There are no easy solutions, and the audience is left to discuss the true ramifications for themselves. For a taut, plot-heavy experience, you can't do much better than Eye In the Sky.

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